1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer system applications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for displaying miniaturized graphical representations (i.e., thumbnails) of documents for alternative viewing selection by a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet, a vast network of computer systems worldwide, has undergone astronomical growth over the past several years. A significant contribution to this growth has been the introduction and widespread use of web browsers, which, from a software point of view, interface a computer user to the Internet. The web browser permits the user to select, view, and interact with a myriad of informational documents (i.e., web pages) from various network servers coupled to the Internet. The web browser effectively places this selection of vast information at the user""s fingertips in a matter of seconds. As a result, the web browser has become one of the most popular computer applications in use today.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical prior art web browser 100, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02, is shown displayed on a computer screen 110. Generally, when the user desires to access a specific web site of the Internet, he or she enters a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in an entry field 120 of the web browser 100. The URL is an address that uniquely identifies a specific web site and will cause the web browser 100 to download the main web page (commonly referred to as a xe2x80x9chomexe2x80x9d page) of that web site. The web browser 100 will then subsequently display the downloaded home page in its display section 130 for viewing by the user. The home page provides the user with various sorts of information, and, typically, also provides options to select xe2x80x9clinksxe2x80x9d to other web pages of the currently accessed web site and/or links to alternative web sites .
As a user xe2x80x9csurfsxe2x80x9d the Internet by accessing various web pages through the selection of these links, the web browser 100 records a list (or xe2x80x9cstackxe2x80x9d) of URLs corresponding to the web pages accessed by the user. The user may desire to re-visit a previously viewed web page for a variety of reasons (e.g., to access more information from the page, have access to alternate links, etc.). For this reason, the web browser 100 includes a xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d button 140 and a xe2x80x9cforwardxe2x80x9d button 150 to enable the user to re-visit a previously accessed web page by sequentially accessing such web pages via the buffered stack of URLs. These xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cforwardxe2x80x9d buttons 140, 150 provide some convenience to the user by preventing the need to re-enter the URL of the previously visited web page in the entry field 120. However, while these buttons 140, 150 may provide some ease in accessing previously visited web pages, their use also poses several disadvantages to the user. The buffered stack of URLs is effectively transparent to the user when using these buttons 140, 150. Accordingly, the user cannot visualize the buffered stack and, thus, must rely on his or her memory for a rough estimate of where the previously accessed web page""s URL appears in the stack. Generally, the user will tediously actuate the xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d button 140 until the desired web page reappears in the display section 130. However, this action tends to be inefficient since it can take considerable time to reload (within the display section 130) each sequentially accessed web page while using the xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d button 140. Additionally, if the user desires to access a web page that appears at the beginning of a lengthy buffered stack, he or she wastes considerable time xe2x80x9csteppingxe2x80x9d through web pages that are intermediate in the URL stack before being able to access the desired web page. In some cases, it may have been quicker to manually enter the URL of the desired web page into the entry field 120, thus causing the arduous effort and time expended of xe2x80x9cblindlyxe2x80x9d stepping through the stack of URLs to be completely useless.
An additional feature of the web browser 100, which may alleviate some of the disadvantages associated with the xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cforwardxe2x80x9d buttons 140, 150, is a xe2x80x9cGoxe2x80x9d feature 160. This feature allows the user to view and select from the buffered stack of URLs to re-visit a previously accessed web page. However, the xe2x80x9cGoxe2x80x9d feature 160 also suffers from its own disadvantages. That is, it does not constantly permit the display of the buffered stack contemporaneously with the display of the currently accessed web page, and, thus inconveniently requires the user to xe2x80x9cpull downxe2x80x9d a menu to view the buffered stack. Additionally, the xe2x80x9cGoxe2x80x9d feature 160 only displays a subset of about 5 URLs from the entire buffered stack of URLs (which could easily be 20-30 URLs, for example). Accordingly, the user is not provided with a full view of the URL stack and must tediously step through intermediate URLs of the displayed stack to view the entire stack. Therefore, this feature, while being somewhat convenient for accessing one of the 5 displayed URLs of the stack, still does not provide any visualization for the other URLs in the stack. Accordingly, the xe2x80x9cGoxe2x80x9d feature 160 does not provide the user any additional advantage over the xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cforwardxe2x80x9d buttons 140, 150 for those URLs that are not displayed.
Some xe2x80x9cnew generationxe2x80x9d web browsers (currently being released) now provide xe2x80x9cback listxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cforward listxe2x80x9d options that display a list of the URLs either back or forward, respectively, in the URL stack for selection by the user. However, these options also inconveniently require the user to xe2x80x9cpull downxe2x80x9d a menu to view the list of URLs. Accordingly, these options, like that of the xe2x80x9cGoxe2x80x9d feature 160, do not permit the constant display of the URL stack contemporaneously with the currently accessed web page. Furthermore, these lists of URLs do not provide any actual visualization of the web pages that they represent. This becomes particularly difficult when the user desires to access several web pages of a particular web site, where only subtle distinctions between such web pages are seen in the URL. Accordingly, the user may waste a significant amount of time accessing undesired web pages by improper URL selection via these lists of URLs.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.
In one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for displaying miniaturized graphical representations of documents for alternative viewing selection by a user. The method includes displaying a current document of a computer application and determining if at least one other document is relevant to the current document based upon a predetermined criterion. The method further includes displaying a miniaturized graphical representation, uniquely identifying the at least one other document, contemporaneously with the current document in response to determining that the at least one other document is relevant to the current document.
In another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus includes a display screen adapted to display a current document of a computer application and a processor adapted to determine if at least one other document is relevant to the current document based upon a predetermined criterion. The processor is further adapted to display a miniaturized graphical representation, uniquely identifying the at least one other document, contemporaneously with the current document providing that the at least one other document was deemed relevant to the current document.